Foundry Corporate News, Topic Pressure Die Casting

02. July 2014

Bühler Invests in Quality

Bühler China opened the new factory in Wuxi, the Chinese headquarters for the Buhler Group.

The city of Wuxi is located just half an hour from Shanghai with the the high-velocity “Bullet Train”, just one of the many signs of China’s technological and economic success. China’s growth and technological development are key reasons why Bühler opened the new factory in Wuxi. This new facility allows Buhler to respond to the growing need of the producers of the die casting industry in China for machines of the quality that distinguishes Bühler.

In order to meet this demand, Bühler has invested 50 million Swiss Francs into the new factory. “This shows that we believe in and are committed to the Chinese market”, Jonathan Abbis, President of the Die Casting division at Bühler, said in his speech at the inauguration of the new manufacturing plant. “In building the factory, we did not compromise on a single item. In Wuxi we are producing machines of the exact same level of quality and reliability that our customers have come to expect from all Bühler machines.”

80 guests – representing around 50 companies from all over China – came to the inauguration to see for themselves. In the new factory, Bühler is producing Ecoline and Ecoline Pro die casting machines. Currently the factory has a capacity of about 200 machines per year with the potential to produce up to 300 machines annually. In order to ensure the quality of the production, 35% of the total investment in Wuxi was allocated for state of the art machining equipment. “If we produce parts ourselves, the transfer of knowledge will be so much easier”, said Robin Lu, President of the Die Casting division Bühler China.

However, it is not only about equipment. Wuxi is the headquarters of Bühler China. The location is not only used for manufacturing, but it is also used for research and development, sales and service, as well as a training center. “Besides Europe and the USA, China is one of the three large centers for our business”, said Marcello Fabbroni, Head of Product Management and Marketing at Bühler. “Of course, it is crucial that we maintain a presence on site in all of these centers”.

The market for die casting machines in particular will continue to develop very quickly in China. Next year, we expect growth of approximately ten percent for the production of components manufactured by the die casting division. “That is huge”, said Fabbroni. Of course this is not only a quantitative development. “It has become clear that Chinese customers are increasingly paying more attention to quality. This represents a great change in thinking.” And Bühler is perfectly situated to cope with China’s demanding growth.